The college basketball season is likely to get more complicated as it goes along. Teams will lose games. They will go through slumps. They might encounter injuries. They will be forced to make adjustments to their lineups and their tactics. Right now, though, there is great clarity about three of the four number one seeds for the 2017 NCAA Tournament. Only the fourth top seed would be in question, and a huge game this Saturday would reasonably decide which team will inherit that slot. Let’s take a look:
Baylor Bears
Midwest Region
The Kansas Jayhawks have won 12 straight Big 12 Conference championships, and they’ve also beaten Duke, but to this point in the season, Baylor has been the better Big 12 team. The Bears haven’t lost a game yet. Their reconstituted roster has quickly settled into place. Baylor has had the ability to make large second-half comebacks. It was down 39-24 at the half against Louisville in the Battle 4 Atlantis championship game. No problem. The Bears clamped down on defense in the second half to win. This is a talented team. It is a resilient team. It is a hungry team. Talent, effort and toughness make a complete team, and that’s what Baylor has been thus far.
UCLA Bruins
West Region
The Bruins are the obvious choice for the top seed in the West. They are not just an unbeaten team; they are an unbeaten team with a giant win on its resume, the victory over Kentucky on the road in Rupp Arena. That win will have a lot of mileage as long as UCLA loses no more than four or five games in Pac-12 play, and as long as those losses are to good teams. The Bruins have already outdistanced Gonzaga, the second-best team in the West to this point, in the battle for a No. 1 regional seed. It will be a while before the Bruins drop out of the picture, if they drop out at all. Even one loss to Ohio State this weekend probably wouldn’t displace the Bruins from the one line. Two losses would.
Villanova Wildcats
East Region
The defending national champions still haven’t lost. Their win last Saturday over Notre Dame, in what was one of the better and more entertaining games of the young season, will become better and better as the season goes along and the Irish pick up quality wins in the ACC. Villanova won at Purdue and has gotten a lot of work done. The Wildcats are not beating cream puffs. Their body of work should hold up over the course of the season, and as long as they split with Xavier, they will increase their chances of being a top seed.
Taking a look back, they are 11-0 on the year and have registered wins over two Top 25 teams (the Fighting Irish and the Boilermakers). They have scored at least 76 points in every single contest. They have won every single game by at least eight points save for their three-point win over Purdue (arguably their toughest game). They are currently the No. 1 team in the Associated Press poll and the USA Today Coaches poll. For those reasons, they would not only be a No. 1 seed in the tournament, they would be the overall No. 1 seed as well.
Winner Of This Saturday’s Kentucky-North Carolina Game
South Region
This is the one question on the board. Which team will be the top seed in the South Region of the NCAA Tournament? Kansas has a case. Duke will get a chance to build a case in time, but the Blue Devils have been dealing with injuries and have not done as well as they would have hoped. Therefore, this Saturday’s Kentucky-North Carolina game would propel the winner to the top line in the South. This would be an enormous win on the resume. Kentucky has beaten Michigan State and some other teams of note. North Carolina has beaten Wisconsin. The winner here should be able to fall into the one line in the South.
Taking a look at the latest betting lines, DSI Sportsbook has this game at a PICK with the total sitting at 164.
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